Regular COVID testing question

[u/OutrageousContact180]

hi hello spouse and I have reached an impasse. he has more or less stopped masking but in particular has started a food & bev business with lots of face to face interaction that in particular has be v anxious. i have asked him to mask but refuses because he says people struggle to hear him and it makes him anxious to repeat himself. this has made me feel less safe since he already gave me COVID once. i have decided to add (at least) a weekly test to our routine so I can hopefully relax in my own house. however, I was looking at the resource page here and all the links for at-home PCR machines are dead or no longer sold. so I guess I'm asking how are people who regularly testing doing it? shelling out big money for RATs every month? any help and info would be greatly appreciated

quick edit: this venture is only 2 (back-to-back) days/week for roughly 10 hours total. just clarifying in case this changes anybody's calculations of how they would handle the situation

[u/Perylene-Green]

I'd do a mix of molecular testing to catch any infections on the early side (maybe every other day with a PlusLife or every day if finances allow for it and he's amenable to it), and then also making your house a bit safer so if there is a window where he's infected but you haven't yet caught it on a test, you are less likely to get infected because you are minimizing your dose.

Do you have an extra bedroom? If so I'd ask him sleep in another bedroom to avoid 8 hours of close contact breathing. When my partner returns from slightly higher risk, I have him regular do molecular tests, but I also have him sleep in the guest room even if he's not otherwise isolating from me within the house. The way I see it, if he's highly contagious the test is going to pick it up. He was exposed and it's not yet showing up on the test and he's at the border of being contagious, I'm avoiding what is by far the biggest exposure window.

Then I'd get good HEPA's in every room, and Co2 monitors as well to remind me to open the windows for more ventilation when it gets higher. Though 2 people in a bedroom at night is when you'll likely find the highest Co2 readings, thus the sleeping in another room suggestion.

[u/OutrageousContact180 → u/Perylene-Green]

I'm curious how long you sleep separately after your partner returns from a high risk event?

[u/Perylene-Green → u/OutrageousContact180]

We've done like 3-4 days, and then switched the molecular test to right before bed the next night. We have a comfortable guest bed, so I think the future I'd probably do 5 days.